Art Guide For Cape Town – 16 To 23 March 2012

Driving around Cape Town during the month of December, you might have seen a lone figure sitting on the side of the road, with a broad-brimmed hat and an easel, painting furiously. If you had stopped to have a chat, you would have found out that Nick is an artist from the UK, who regularly comes to Cape Town to explore our beautiful city through paint. He has been known to set up his easel in decidedly odd places in order to capture the scene that has captured his attention – anywhere from a busy intersection to the roof of his car.

‘Ingekleur’ translated from Afrikaans is ‘coloured in’, ‘coloured’ or ‘marked’. The term ‘Ingekleur’ refers to the imposed identity. The subtitle alludes to boundaries often transgressed by the people of this social/cultural group. It imbues the societal constructs that were put in place but at the same time speaks of rebellion. ‘Outside the lines’ alludes to identities that are not homogenous and static, but are shifting, contradictory, luminal and diffusive.

A Centenary Celebration of the Life and Work of Barbara Tyrrell. This exhibition and re-evaluation of her work by curators Vusi Buthelezi and Yvonne Winters of the Campbell Collections at the University of KwaZulu – Natal, honours this veteran Durban-born artist and author. “Cape Town is her present home and at 100 she needs to be acknowledged while she is still with us,” stated curator, Vusi Buthelezi Through her vision and character, Tyrell is regarded as a heroine in certain rural Kwazulu-Natal communities.

16 March – 8 July

Iziko South African National Gallery, Tel: (021) 481 3800

Nuclear Disaster Stories by Jan Smith

Jan Smith documents remote and isolated modern-day ruins, constructs of nuclear disasters. He sensitively focuses his lens on the catastrophic effects of nuclear disasters, and illustrates the improbability of life in these radioactive wastelands.

Cape Town artist, Jop Kunneke’s latest collection delivers satirical social commentary, masked by his masterful depiction of creatures at the fringe of the animal kingdom. The quirky themes of ‘survival of the sneakiest’ and ‘adapt or die’ are presented through a narrative visual exploration of ‘pointed snouts, darting tongues and curving claws’.

Joanne Bloch, Jessica Brown, George Mahashe, Brenton Maart, Andrew Putter, Jon Whidden and Clare Butcher (curator) with the ARC (the visual university and its columbarium focus, University of Cape Town) present new body of works in progress, developed over the last year. The group enter into “the library” a set of unorthodox practices and materials which challenge the notion of archival practice.